skiing is for lunatics
The concept here is: “Which ski resort you’ll get the most skiing/riding at for the least amount of time spent waiting for and sitting upon chairlifts.” (aka the most ‘bang for your buck’)
“Revelstoke is the clear winner here. And names you’d expect in the top five make the list like Jackson Hole and Sun Valley. This means that lift lines are short, chairlifts are fast, trails are steep, and there’s plenty available vertical for you to hit on your way down. In short, you get the most bang for your buck (if vertical and serious skiing is what you care about).” – Alpine Replay
This info comes from the ski/board App called Alpine Replay. We’d like to say thanks to these guys to putting this together as this is key information for skiers and riders.
Here’s how they compiled this data:
“We took a look at the average times spent waiting and sitting on a lift vs. average vertical in a day for every resort in North America. We took the top 30 from more than 300 resorts (so this represents the cream of the crop).” – Alpine Replay
(No Squaw Valley USA on this list…guess that place sucks for vertical, huh?)
“The relative difference in percentage is significant. Put another way, if you’re going to ski for a week or more, these differences will add up quickly. From #2 to #25 (the list has 30) it’s a 30% difference! You may want to keep this in mind.” – Alpine Replay
This is a very important data set. We all just wanna ski & ride. No one wants to spend time in lift lines or on lifts. This gives us a straight up answer to the question: where can I get in the most vertical in one day?
Do you guys agree with this list?
TOP 30 VERTICAL DROP TO LIFT TIME RATIOS:
1. Revelstoke, B.C.
2. Snowbird, UT
3. Jackson Hole, WY
4. Beaver Creek, CO
5. Sun Valley, ID
6. Mt. Rose, NV
7. Whistler, B.C.
8. Stowe, VT
9. Keystone, CO
10. Steamboat, CO
11. Snowmass, CO
12. Hunter Mountain, NY
13. Loon Mountain, NH
14. Vail, CO
15. Copper Mountain, CO
16. Schweitzer, ID
17. Snowbasin, UT
18. Crystal Mountain, WA
19. Whiteface, NY
20. Okemo, VT
21. Lake Louise, Canada
22. Telluride, CO
23. Stratton, VT
24. Northstar, CA
25. Marmot Basin, Canada
26. The Canyons, UT
27. Durango Mountain, CO
28. Brighton, UT
29. Mammoth, CA
30. Mt. Hood Meadows, OR
A bit misleading. This should be Ski time vs Wait time due to lines/slow lifts.
“for the buck”? No mention of price. Some of the areas with the most expensive
lift tickets (eg Beaver creek, Vail, & Telluride) get good ratings here.
That is what the first graph is showing. Read the side of the chart “Vertical Drop/ Lift Time”
The second graph is “normalized” meaning all the hills lift tickets were taken into account in the equation that produced the final graph.
I know you want to jump to conclusions and assume unofficial fucked shit up but this data was collected/ compiled and turned into those pretty graphs that confuse idiots by Alpine Replay.
He probably has a jump to conclusions mat.
Yes 2nd graph is “normalized” about Snowmass as 1.000 and scales
are blown up otherwise it’s really same as the first one.
Please tell how you can read anything about lift ticket prices here.
High speed lifts don’t always mean high lift ticket prices. Mt Rose &
Bogus Basin are good examples.
haha where is squaw now!!!!!
Don’t come to Squaw, it didn’t make the list. Northstar however, got a pretty rating. Go check it out.
dont forget stowes lift ticket price around 98 dollars
Utter horseshit.. Kicking Horse doesn’t even feature!!.. No lines, an 11 minute gondola from bottom to top and 1200m of steep vertical should put it in the top 10 if not 5.. you can lap this place in under 20 minutes if you don’t hang around.. I know of one person who did 19 laps in a day and that wasn’t even the record.. that’s 22,800m vert in a day.. Go do your survey again..
some tool bag need to have rode a day with Alpine Replay for the hill to make the list. so i am guessing Kicking Horse has a crew that does not give a shit about tracking their day on their iPhones.
Big thumbs up to all the riders there.
also no alyeska… 2,000 ft tram with hardly any lines???
shhhh
You know your survey is screwed when flatstar ends up anywhere near the top of anything but high prices, time it takes to actually get from your car to skiing, and ski patrol that can be out skiied by 5 year olds.
same idea as above. Northstar must be packed with gapers that love to track their day on Alpine Replay.
Thumbs down to that crew.
Are you two serious? I like the terrain at Squaw better, too, but claiming that N-Star is NOT better managed (shorter lift line waits) is just ridonkulous wishful thinking.
The lift lines are short cause it takes people so long to actually pick up enough speed to get back to the lift. Also I stand by my managment comment, opening day 2010-2011 I swore Id never go back there for skiing after the shitshow that was
Agreed that NStar is lacking in terrain. But powder days last forEVER. Untracked laps on Lookout all day long… compare that with the blown out in 90 minutes scene at Squaw. No wonder SV isn’t on the list. Too many good skiers track the sh!t up too quick. As an ex-emp, I still love the Star on a storm day!
Id rather ski tracked out steep pow then flat crap that you cant even going fast enough to make a turn.. if it was that good you wouldnt be bragging online you’d be keeping it to yourself…
Kicking horse on a weekend had awful lines. Sit in the gondola line for 20 minutes and stairway to heaven isn’t much better. Weekday sure, you fly through.
On some weekends – true.. but generally you unstrap and walk on..
Revelstoke…are you kidding me?! Check the beginning of this vid and see how big this liftline is…you can’t even see the base station! Waited for at least 1 hr to get up there and of course most of the stuff was tracked out by then. Yeah, I know…get up at 5:30 and you might get fresh tracks…
Also, bang for your buck? RMR shortened the season by 2 weeks this year…
https://vimeo.com/35470491
hahaha Can’t find fresh tracks on Revy? I got some real stashs that never get touched even a week after a dump. You need to get off the groomers, drop some glades and maybe do a hike. To tell you the truth you kinda sound like a pussy.
whats funny about the video is that it was a long ass line, probably with a huge wait time, but they still rode deep untouched pow. And in they glades they were in, no one else could be seen. So you sort of proved yourself wrong there
PS: Revelstoke has the biggest vertical in North America! Too bad the bottom half is shit and barely has good snow all year…
It’s still a nice place but just way over-hyped!
hummmm….. yep a pussy indeed
Nice to see Colorado posted a quarter of the top spots, but this is all a crock of shit. The lift lines at Copper Mountain make it the SLOWEST place in the world to ski! And like others said, factor in prices, and this list is nothing but false info. For Colorado, you’d get far more vert at Loveland, Mary Jane, Arapahoe, Wolf Creek, or Telluride than you would at any resort in Eagle or Scummit counties.
Do you only go to Copper on saturdays during chrismas break? Try going mid-week and you can go all day without ever waiting in line.
Copper is actually incredably quiet compared to Vail or Breck.
How bad does it hurt, Squaw? Knowing you got beat out by Northstar. Put your $92 lift in your pipe and smoke it.
Stopped reading the minute I saw that flatstar was ranked above Mammoth.
This is a joke.
A bad one.
NO way Vail should be on this list. Especially in front of Mammoth, or Telluride.. are you kidding me?
I totally agree. The lift lines in Vail are absurd, while places like Telluride offer up huge vert with almost no wait time. From the top of Palmyra Peak back down to town is almost a vertical mile and you’ll hardly see another soul until you get to the bottom. Yeah, lift 9 is slow, but you can cruise laps on Gold Hill as long as your legs (and lungs) can take it!
i’m with simon, this is bullshit. Don’t go to revelstoke!
you sir are an Idiot
Ha! I love it. This dude ^ calling people idiots can’t even spell his own name correctly.
Canyons for sure should be higher. 25 lifts + massive inbounds area= few lines, lots of untracked, even if not that much vert
Yeah but with the new terrain park the huge one it’s gaperville Powder Mountain has 7000 acres serviced by cats and lifts that’s we’re its at
don’t get me wrong, i love the bird, but if wait times on a normal midwinter/vacation/pow day were also factored in snowbird would be nowhere near the top.
It’s all about Fernie, BC.
You mean K-val right? “It must be some kind of…Hot Tub Time Machine.”
All the stats collected to make these graphs relies on people using Alpine Replay. Think of how many days you took out your iPhone and turned that app on. I myself used it twice out of the 83 day I got in this season. After learning that I can go 58 mph and that I wonder all over the place (parking lot and lodge as well) i said fudge it, this app is lame and it drains my battery faster than pandora does.
What this graph is showing to me is the amount of time gapers/ joeies went to their favorite resorts and what their experience was. If cell service is scarce, data is too. If no one uses this app at your favorite hill data is scarce.
In conclusion I feel the data used to create these graphs is no ware near a complete representation “top 30 most bang for your buck”. Data was not properly collected for every resort in north America. This is just a stupid thing you can bring to the office and brag about – just like alpine replay. This information gives me the same feeling using the app does – fucking pointless waste.
It is summer guys – give us some trail updates, rad shots from local trails, stories from epic bike rides, some trails to check out, beach conditions, surf………………………………………….get creative
Aspen, with 3000+ at ajax and highlands, and basically no lift lines, whatsoever, should be on the list. well ahead of vail and the others (besides Beav). nice try SCIENTISTS
I often wonder how Aspen and Highlands can afford to run the lifts midweek, great mountains to get some morning hot laps in, making huge GS turns without seeing another soul.
what the fuck is northstar doing on that list?
Probably skewed because at places like Jackson, revelstoke, and snowbird the average skier is much better than at other resorts and will therefore ski more vertical per day. Also what do people think of revelstoke?
kickinghorse…
Bunch of fucking haaaaaaaaaaters on this site.
Come to the conclusion that no one likes squaw as a resort. Lmfao
Uh wheres big sky?
wow, who came up with this list? thanks again to snowbird for being the “resort” (aka flycatcher)
haha this is so from the truth… how about big sky? we rarely have lines and lots of high speed lifts. but montana sucks, its rocky and all dont bother to visit
ya seriously everyone stay away from bigsky, and bridger as well. They have horrible snow and bad terrain. Not worth your time
Complete shit. I hate the headwaters at moonlight. And the Ridge at Bridger is all ice
tram is amazing, dont get me wrong, but the only thing you can lap off the tram is big and little, anything else is a 2 or 3 lift lap, and your usually waiting at least 10 minutes for the tram on a good day. Same with the headwaters, pretty much everything worth skiing involves a hike and 2 lifts and we all know how long the 6er takes.. Making challenger or the thunderwolf the best lifts for getting vert quick, but challenger is a slow 2 chair that backs up and that leaves thunderwolf as the best chair for getting vert, which is kinda sad… BUT HEY ITS FUCKING BIG SKY and every tram lap is usually worth the wait
Revelstoke is the only resort in North America that makes my legs burn in February after a top to bottom run.
You guys realize that picture of the giant moon is from a joke photoshop contest on reddit.com?
Alyeska should be #1, but people in AK still are struggling with the whole “app” thing.
All the “hardcore” ski skiers/boarders won’t like this one!
Fact is you can do more vertical at many other places in less time!
agreed, it’s horseshit, plain and simple. as are all review sites relating to skiing and gear. just wasted words and e-space.
so why are you wasting your time?
because there is a lot of good information out there, not included in surveys and graphs, speculation and false data
Have you ever skied Hunter come on now. Where’s crested butte
Silver queen is fast & serves up se nice vert
Everyone who is saying stay away from Revy is totally right. Stay away from my town and keep all the sick pow pow for me and my friends. Fucking morons, probably Americans. By the way Whistler is way better then Squaw, and Revy is better then both.
Whistler has the longest lines I’ve ever seen. Biggest reason I couldn’t settle down there for good. Fair to say that an area without lines probably wouldn’t be prestigious enough to make a continent wide list..
apps to track your vertical + lift lines = gaperville
Alyeska should be number 1, 45 dollar ticket and no lines
mt rose represent! the chutes are way steeper than anything at squaw
Whistler has hour long lines. MT hood meadows has insanely long lines when ever it snows, and their vert is a joke. A JOKE!
Plattekill New York – untracked on most powder daze till you get back in your car…. for $10 a few years ago now I think $15. I forget, so cheap it’s not worth remembering. The nice, slow double will let you catch your breath and get you some of the best lines in the Cattskills. But hey don’t tell anyone it’s too close to NYC.
Mt Rose has horrible lines on weekends and bluebird powder days, stay away, The place gets tracked in seconds, go to Squaw and Northstar where you can enjoy the experience better.
No Aspen Mountain?? 3,267 ft in 17 minutes…and rarely a line?? c’mon bro??
The Bird in UT is the best less than an hour away from SLC Int. Airport lift ticket aroun 70 $ the aerial team sits 120 people and goes from 7000 feet to 11k plus the tunnel to mineral basin covers tons of vert
Seriously Utah is where it’s at 9 resorts within an hour of SLC it’s the most accessible place to ski plus with that huge lake effect we get 500 inches of snow dry powder we ski in July no big deal
Mt. Baker in WA is great but the snow is like concrete compared to Utah, Breck in Colo is good too but lift lines suck but it’s got a deac vert.
Isn’t Paradaski like 200 lifts for a 75$ day pass?